Nipple Discharge

Abstract

• Nipple discharge is the third most frequently reported breast complaint, after breast pain and breast mass. The vast majority of nipple discharges are physiological or otherwise benign. • In the presence of secretions, visual assessment is crucial while instrumental tests have often a negligible impact. • Physiologic discharges usually are bilateral, involve multiple ducts, are multicoloured or milky, are sometimes thick and are usually not spontaneous. • Pathologic discharges are spontaneous and usually blood-stained, serous or sometimes watery. They are unilateral, involve a single duct and are more worrisome in patients greater than 50 years old.

Future directions. Papillary lesions of the breast, a wide and heterogeneous group of epithelial lesions, encompass a spectrum of both benign and malignant lesions despite sharing a similar basic architecture. They represent one of the more challenging diagnostic entities in breast pathology, where architectural features, cellular composition and distribution of myoepithelial cells as highlighted by immunochemistry are the major but not exclusive diagnostic criterion. Whether these lesions should be excised if diagnosed on incisional or core biopsy is still controversial.